Guess who’s coming to town this Christmas!? Move over Santa, this is Google’s moment. Apparently, Google is finally opening up a digital locker and download store that is sure to make Apple sweat – many label executives believe it will.
“Finally here’s an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform,” a label executive who asked not to be identified told Reuters. “What you’ll have is a very powerful player in the market that’s good for the music business.”
Last October I was fortunate to meet Gary Ge Chen; Founder/CEO of top100.cn and Chief Executive of Orca Digital – Google’s music partner in China. Freemium models have been the preferred choice in China for some time due to ridiculous piracy rates that leaves the value of music at almost zero.
Here is snap shots of Google Music China as well as snap shots with what I know:
Google Bubbles
The size of the bubbles match the accuracy of your music trending from genre to the bpm of your music.
The Google Music Search
Lets the user choose how the music is consumed, be it streaming, downloading or even as a ringtone (huge markets in Asia)
Google Music Player
The player streams music and you are able to create playlists as well as my favorite feature… If you notice on the right there are the lyrics to a Mariah Carey song. The lyrics are highlighted as they are sung, very much like as you would see in karaoke.
This is going to be an exciting time for music consumption with Sony’s Music Unlimited coming out around the same time and recently launched music social-platform iTunes Ping. However, I can see this battle being centred around mobile phones and their platforms for music - Google’s Android, Apple’s iPhone and Sony Ericsson Walkmen phones.




I have a blackberry, come on RIM, its time to throw your hat into the ring. Iphones are poo.
I have never had an iPhone and everyone loves it regardless of its main function as a phone being terrible. I don’t get it.
Will be interesting if blackberry will just adopt as service as their own like GrooveShark or Spotify